diving and turtles!
Today was great, primarily because 1) I got to dive, and 2) we tagged and released two green sea turtles! ^-^
Joined the dive crew's inspection tour of South Miniloc. For some reason, they gave me a "shortie" - a short wetsuit - while everyone else wore full suits. So yeah, I was cold because the water was 26 degrees. Chris, Johann, Amy, Vocz, and Elmer surveyed the site for possible new routes and damage to the site, while they assigned GL to show me the route they usually follow when touring guests. Saw a school of yellow snappers, barracudas, fusiliers, rainbow runners, and cuttlefish. Whee :) I didn't get to see the green sea turtles that usually hang out there though. Ended up using 3/4 of the tank because I had to swim against the current. Got dropped of at Pangulasian afterwards for the turtle release.
We tagged and released two juvenile green sea turtles at Pangulasian Island around 1:30pm. They were accidentally caught by fishermen and brought to the Protected Area Office to recover before release. Mesach (my boss' boatman and invaluable assistant) and Francis of Housekeeping took care of the tagging - punching a hole in the left flipper then attaching the tag (basically like getting your ear pierced) - while I gave a short talk to the guests. One of the guests was lucky enough to release one of the turtles while I got to release the other one. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because my ebil camera refused to turn on even though it had fresh batteries. It finally turned on after the turtles were released. Grar.
Anyway, this is where I was this afternoon:
OT: I really need to get my own dry bag. My backpack got wet on the boat and so did everything else inside. Sigh. Good thing my dry clothes, phone, and camera were inside a plastic bag. My notebook is salvageable though the paper looks weird now.
Joined the dive crew's inspection tour of South Miniloc. For some reason, they gave me a "shortie" - a short wetsuit - while everyone else wore full suits. So yeah, I was cold because the water was 26 degrees. Chris, Johann, Amy, Vocz, and Elmer surveyed the site for possible new routes and damage to the site, while they assigned GL to show me the route they usually follow when touring guests. Saw a school of yellow snappers, barracudas, fusiliers, rainbow runners, and cuttlefish. Whee :) I didn't get to see the green sea turtles that usually hang out there though. Ended up using 3/4 of the tank because I had to swim against the current. Got dropped of at Pangulasian afterwards for the turtle release.
We tagged and released two juvenile green sea turtles at Pangulasian Island around 1:30pm. They were accidentally caught by fishermen and brought to the Protected Area Office to recover before release. Mesach (my boss' boatman and invaluable assistant) and Francis of Housekeeping took care of the tagging - punching a hole in the left flipper then attaching the tag (basically like getting your ear pierced) - while I gave a short talk to the guests. One of the guests was lucky enough to release one of the turtles while I got to release the other one. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because my ebil camera refused to turn on even though it had fresh batteries. It finally turned on after the turtles were released. Grar.
Anyway, this is where I was this afternoon:
OT: I really need to get my own dry bag. My backpack got wet on the boat and so did everything else inside. Sigh. Good thing my dry clothes, phone, and camera were inside a plastic bag. My notebook is salvageable though the paper looks weird now.